some travelers are drawn forward by a goal lying before them in the way iron is drawn to the magnet. Others are driven on by a force lying behind them. In such a way the bowstring makes the arrow fly. Isak Dinesen More Quotes by Isak Dinesen More Quotes From Isak Dinesen It is when people are told their own thoughts that they think they are being insulted. Isak Dinesen truth people thinking When you have caught the rhythm of Africa, you find out that it is the same in all her music. Isak Dinesen rhythm caught It is difficult to restrain admirers of Shakespeare once they have begun to speak of him. Isak Dinesen admirer difficult speak Within our whole universe the story only has the authority to answer that cry of heart of its characters, that one cry of heart of each of them: "Who am I?" Isak Dinesen stories heart character I beg of you, you good people who want to hear stories told: look at this page and recognize the wisdom of my grandmother and of all old story-telling women! Isak Dinesen grandmother people looks It is not the visions but the activity which makes you happy, and the joy and glory of the flier is the flight itself. . . Every time I have gone up in an aeroplane and looked down have realized I was free of the ground, I have had the consciousness of a new discovery. "I see:" I have thought, "This was the idea. And now I understand everything." Isak Dinesen joy discovery ideas I think it will be truly glorious when women become real people and have the whole world open to them. Isak Dinesen real people thinking The divine art is the story. Isak Dinesen stories writing art Humanity has made a great error in seizing on a certain moment, no more intrinsically notable than any other moment and has called it Birth. The habit of honoring one single instant of the universal process to the disadvantage of other instants has done more, perhaps, than anything to obfuscate the crystal clearness of the fundamental flux. Isak Dinesen balance errors humanity A visitor is a friend, he brings news, good or bad, which is bread to the hungry minds in lonely places. A real friend who comes to the house is a heavenly messenger, who brings the panis angelorum. Isak Dinesen lonely real house One may take many liberties with God which one cannot take with men. Isak Dinesen liberty god men I don't believe in evil; I believe only in horror. In nature there is no evil, only an abundance of horror: the plagues and the blights and the ants and the maggots. Isak Dinesen ants evil believe In those days I had various strong inclinations, for wine, gambling and cockfighting, and the society of gypsies, together with a passion for theological discussion which I had inherited from my father himself-all of which my father thought I had better rid myself of before I married. Isak Dinesen passion strong father Africa, amongst the continents, will teach it to you: that God and the Devil are one, the majesty coeternal, not two uncreated but one uncreated, and the Natives neither confounded the persons nor divided the substance. Isak Dinesen devil substance two It is when one begins to lose the consciousness of freedom, and when the idea of necessity enters the world at all, when there is any hurry or strain anywhere, a letter to be written or a train to catch, when you have got to work, to make the horses of the dream gallop, or to make the rifles go off, that the dream is declining, and turning into the nightmare, which belongs to the poorest and most vulgar class of dreams. Isak Dinesen horse dream class There are things which cannot be carried through even with the good will of everybody concerned Isak Dinesen concerned good-will It is a good thing to be a great sinner. Or should human beings allow Christ to have died on the Cross for the sake of our petty lies and our paltry whorings Isak Dinesen sake lying christ I felt that Paris was illuminated by a splendor possessed by no other places. Isak Dinesen splendor paris felt The entire being of a woman is a secret which should be kept. Isak Dinesen women should secret In the mind and nature of a man a secret is an ugly thing, like a hidden physical defect. Isak Dinesen ugly-things secret men